FBI arrested former Disney World employee for hacking computer menus and mislabeling allergy info – Source: securityaffairs.com

A former Disney World employee hacked servers after being fired, altering prices, adding profanities, and mislabeling allergy info.

A former Walt Disney World employee hacked servers after being fired by the company. He is accused of changing prices, adding profanities, and falsely labeling items as allergy-safe.

The FBI arrested the man last week, falsely declaring some items as allergy-safe could put the lives of visitors at risk. Fortunately, Disney detected the unauthorized changes to menus before they were distributed, preventing serious consequences.

The former Disney employee denied any misconduct when FBI agents searched his home last month.

The man’s attorney stated he plans to plead not guilty once indicted. He is currently in jail until a bond hearing that’s scheduled for the next week.

In a motion for his release, the attorney stated that the client has faced mental health issues since childhood and is currently seeing a psychiatrist, but is not receiving any treatment in jail.

“He is not receiving any mental health counseling or treatment in jail,” the attorney said in the motion, reported the Associated Press.

The company had to take its menu creation program offline for over a week, incurring costs of at least $150,000 due to the attacks.

Disney’s internal investigation identified a former menu production manager who was fired in a contentious manner last June, as a potential suspect. Among the employee’s tasks, there were the creation and publishing of the menus for all company restaurants, and the complaint noted that only employees in similar positions would have the necessary access and knowledge to execute the attacks.

“The termination was “contentious and not considered to be amicable,” and his job responsibilities included the creation and publishing of menus for the company’s entire restaurant portfolio, the criminal complaint said.

“An internal investigation by Disney determined that the worker who was fired last June from his job as a menu production manager was a potential suspect. The termination was “contentious and not considered to be amicable,” and his job responsibilities included the creation and publishing of menus for the company’s entire restaurant portfolio, the criminal complaint said.”

According to the complaint, only employees in his position or similar positions “would have the accesses and knowledge to carry out the attacks”.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Walt Disney World)